Quotes on Education

See also: 3rd Nephi 6:12

You educate a man; you educate a man. You educate a woman; you educate a generation. – Brigham Young

The story is told that Brigham Young was once asked what he would do if he had to choose between providing education for his sons or for his daughters. He replied that he would educate his daughters because they would become the mothers of his grandchildren. — President Gordon B. Hinckley, “Our Responsibility to Our Young Women,” Regional Representatives’ Seminar, April 1, 1988

Be smart. The Lord wants you to educate your minds and hands, whatever your chosen field. Whether it be repairing refrigerators, or the work of a skilled surgeon, you must train yourselves. Seek for the best schooling available. Become a workman of integrity in the world that lies ahead of you. I repeat, you will bring honor to the Church and you will be generously blessed because of that training.

There can be no doubt, none whatever, that education pays. Do not short-circuit your lives. If you do so, you will pay for it over and over and over again. — President Gordon B. Hinckley, “A Prophet’s Counsel and Prayer for Youth,” Ensign, January 2001, p. 2

Education is a good thing, and blessed is the man who has it and can use it for the dissemination of the gospel without being puffed up with pride. — Brigham Young, in a discourse delivered April 29, 1866; Church News, February 15, 1992, p. 2

Education is the power to think clearly, the power to act well in the world’s work, and the power to appreciate life. – Brigham Young

As stake president, I was questioned by many young people about their own educational pursuits. Some asked me how long it took to become a doctor of medicine. “The general pattern would be four years at a university, followed by four years in medical school,” I replied. “And if you choose to become a specialist, that could take another five years or more, depending upon your desire.”

That occasionally evoked a reaction: “That adds up to thirteen years – and maybe more? That’s too long for me!”

“It all depends,” I would respond “Preparation for your career is not too long if you know what you want to do with your life. How old will you be thirteen years from now if you don’t pursue your education? Just as old, whether or not you become what you want to be!” — Elder Russell M. Nelson, Ensign, November 1992, p. 6

I hope that our young sisters will not . . . neglect their natural talents in literature or language and in science. Remember, we take our knowledge, skills, and attributes with us not only into marriage – but also into eternity. — Elder Neal A. Maxwell

The Lord does not, and the Church cannot, admit to favoritism toward those who are able to obtain professional degrees as compared to those who seek training in a practical field or those who have little or no schooling at all. — President Boyd K. Packer, Ensign, November 1992, p. 72

Joseph Smith said: “God judges men according to the use they make of the light which He gives them.” (History of the Church 5:368.)

. . . Men are not chosen for privilege but for their capacity to bless others. — Gary L. Bunker, “Mocking Our Brother,” Ensign, April 1975, p. 36

The two groups who seem to have the greatest difficulty with pride are the learned and the rich. — President Ezra Taft Benson, Conference Report, April 1986, p. 6

Perhaps the most valuable result of all education is the ability to make yourself do the thing you have to do, when it ought to be done, whether you like it or not. (Thomas Henry Huxley, in John Bartlett, comp., Familiar Quotations (1968), 725.) — Sue Hirase, “Healing My Homesickness,” Ensign, January 2010, p. 66

With intellectual curiosity the world will always be full of magic and wonder. — Marjorie Hinckley

Our religion will not clash with nor contradict the facts of science in any particular. – Brigham Young

We want also to be alive in the cause of education. We are commanded of the Lord to obtain knowledge, both by study and by faith, seeking it out of the best books. And it becomes us to teach our children, and afford them instruction in every branch of education calculated to promote their welfare, leaving those false acquirements which tend to . . . lead away the mind and affection from the things of God. We want to compile the intelligence and literacy of this people in book-form, as well as in teaching and preaching; adopting all the good and useful books we can obtain; . . . instead of doing as many of the world do, take the works of God, to try to prove that there is no God; we want to prove by God’s works that he does exist, that he lives and rules and holds us, as it were, in the hollow of his hand. — President John Taylor, Deseret News Weekly, 5 June 1878, p. 275

Those who possess absolute truths need fear no ancillary truth but should pursue learning vigorously, since learning is good so long as we “hearken unto the counsels of God.” (2 Ne. 9:29) When education is thus pursued by our young today, they should be assured by all of us that they are “about” their “Father’s business,” (Luke 2:49) and be witnessed to; that when man has reached the small “periphery of the spider web of his own reason and logic,” he will find the ropes of revelation on which he can climb upward, forever! — Elder Neal A. Maxwell, Conference Report, October 1970, pp. 94-98

Will education feed and clothe you, keep you warm on a cold day, or enable you to build a house? Not at all. Should we cry down education on this account? No. What is it for? The improvement of the mind; to instruct us in all arts and sciences, in the history of the world, in laws of nations; to enable us to understand the laws and principles of life, and how to be useful while we live. — Discourses of Brigham Young, pp. 250-51